ACCOMMODATION provided at the migrant processing facility in Manston in Kent is “quite reasonable”, according to a government minister.
Food minister Mark Spencer was responding to reports of poor conditions and outbreaks of diseases and violence at the centre, after an inspector’s report described conditions there as “wretched”.
Asked if people were not being looked after compassionately, he said: “No, actually, the accommodation there is quite reasonable. They’ve got access to showers to medical facilities to food. And so what matters actually is getting them processed as quickly as possible.
“We’re talking about people who’ve been exploited who’ve literally had their life savings taken off them, put on an unseaworthy craft and pushed across the channel by unscrupulous people who are exploiting them.
“We have a responsibility to look after them, to process them quickly, and to work out who’s a genuine asylum seeker and who should be returned to a safe country.”
In an interview during Breakfast with Stephen Dixon and Rosie Wright on GB News, he said: “My understanding is actually that people presented with diphtheria and were treated by the medical facilities there. That was not an outbreak of diphtheria within the facility. That’s people landing on our shores with that condition and being treated by our medical teams there to help them and support them.
“So we then need to process these people as quickly as possible…that’s what we’re attempting to do, but there is a plan where we’re working with local authorities. We’ve invested over £20 million with our local authorities up and down the country to accommodate people in different places around the UK, but the answer is a multiple choice question if you like.
“We need to get on with the Rwanda plan, we need to make sure we break the business model of those people coming across the channel, exploiting people and we need to process them at the other end and make sure we get to the right conclusions as quickly as possible.”
Asked when processing takes so long, Mr Spencer said: “It’s quite complicated to work out, because obviously, these people sometimes come without any documentation, so you’ve got to work out where they come from, how old they are and their background and it’s quite difficult to process and verify all of that information. That is quite a challenge but that’s what we’re doing.
“We’re trying to expedite and do as quickly as possible, but it’s not quite as easy as you know, here is individual A, and all of that information is presented and documented – that’s not how people turn up on our shores.”
He said: “That’s why the Home Secretary is in the Home Office, dealing with those challenges as we speak. We want to get through this process as quickly as possible. We want to break that model of people stealing their life savings and putting their lives in danger. And we want to try and do that as quickly as physically deliverable.
“There is no silver bullet here and to suggest there is a silver bullet is misleading. It’s a very complicated system that we’re addressing and we need a multiple answer to that and we’ll continue to – I think Rwanda is part of that solution but there are other answers which we’re delivering at the same time.”
On the Dover firebomb attack, he said: “Those people had to be moved from Dover rapidly, they needed to go somewhere secure and safe and Manson was the best option at this moment in time to look after them, when we’re talking about very vulnerable people here who are being exploited.
“Actually in the United Kingdom we’ve got a fantastic track record of being the most compassionate country anywhere in the world. We’ve taken people from Afghanistan, from Syria, from Hong Kong, from Ukraine.
“It’s no surprise that people want to come here because we’re such a compassionate and caring country, but we need to develop systems that are robust enough and quick enough to be able to deal with them.”
On Saturday, GB News aired a report based on the testimony of a whistleblower who works at the site and said violence, disease and attempts at self-harm are a daily occurrence at the facility.
He told Mark White: “Local hospitals are struggling to deal with the constant flow of migrants with various illnesses that are transported from Manston.”
